Rev. Silas Patterson, at 85; founded Jerusalem Temple Holy Pentecostal Church in Jersey City

The Rev. Silas Patterson, who led a Jersey City church for 44 years, died at his Linden home on Sunday. He was 85.

His wife, Jesse Mae Ruff, and his daughter, Joe Ann Wiley, said that Patterson was a beloved family member, tireless worker for his church, and a builder of a great institution.

“He was a giver his whole life,” Wiley said. “He would give members rides to and from service because he was the only one with a car.”

Before Patterson became an ordained bishop in 1980, he was a pastor in his home state of Georgia.

In 1954, he tried to start his own church in Georgia but stopped after receiving threats from the Ku Klux Klan, according to family members.

He moved north the following year.

In 1968, Patterson and 25 congregants launched the Jerusalem Temple Holy Pentecostal Church on Monticello Avenue in Jersey City, where he served as pastor and then as the bishop until his last sermon this past July 15 never missing a day in his 44 years of service, according to his daughter.

The church now has approximately 300 members, family members said.

Patterson would often share stories about his loving wife in the sermons.

He joked about the yellow dress his future wife was wearing when they met. From the moment he saw that 16-year-old girl, he decided she would be his wife, he would say, according to his daughter.

After they were married on Nov. 16, 1946, Ruff said she told him, “you got a sock on your foot that you can’t pull off now.” Nov. 16 would have been their 66th wedding anniversary.